I have just made a Hyperion recording of Alessandro Scarlatti’s Davidis
pugna et victoria my Recording of the Month and Download
of the Month. This Regent CD is not in the same category,
but it does represent an important addition to the Scarlatti
discography, since father Alessandro’s Missa breve and
some of the motets are here recorded for the first time. Its
value is increased by the inclusion of Domenico Scarlatti’s Stabat
Mater; this is a work less often recorded than his father’s,
an excellent version of which is available from Naïve Baroque
Voices at mid price (OP30441, Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini,
with the Pergolesi Stabat Mater, ‘a beautiful and
moving disc’ - see Glyn Pursglove’s review).

It was wise of Regent and the performers to avoid comparison
with more established recordings of Alessandro’s music.
For about half of this CD Christ’s College Choir and David
Rowland have the field more or less to themselves, unless and
until another recording of the Missa breve comes along.
Christ’s performance of this work will do well in the meantime,
but it isn’t difficult to imagine a better. Though I am
always pleased to see other choirs at Cambridge and Oxford taking
on the top dogs from King’s, Christ Church and New College,
I have to say that I thought that Christ’s here rose to
the challenge less convincingly than Queen’s College, Oxford,
in their recording of 17th-century Iberian music, Cæli
porta, which I recommended some months ago (Guild GMCD7323
- see review).

Without even mentioning those more established choirs, and comparing
the singing of Christ’s choir here with mixed college choirs
such as Queen’s, Oxford, and Trinity, Cambridge, their
singing is at best somewhat forthright and at worst a little
rough and ready. It’s good enough to allow us to enjoy
the Missa breve and one wouldn’t complain at singing
of this quality at a regular celebration of a Choral Eucharist.
They rightly make us sit up and take notice at the opening of Kyrie
eleison but they sound much less tonally secure than one
might like and the recording tends to blast slightly.

This may be an accurate reflection of how the music sounded when
it was first sung - I have heard Spanish and Italian cathedral
choirs sound much rougher than the singing here, including some
very unsteady Victoria at High Mass in Toledo Cathedral - and
the recording may be partly to blame, but it’s not what
we have become used to hearing from professional groups such
as Alessandrini’s Concerto Italiano or the best English
cathedral and collegiate choirs.

Matters improve as the Mass progresses and the six motets by
Alessandro fare even better - often much better than the opening
sections of the Mass. This went some considerable way to reconciling
me to this recording; I shall return to it for the works which
are unavailable elsewhere, but even the motets sound slightly
tentative and insecure by comparison with the best. There’s
potentially a much more affective interpretation of AdDominum
cum tribularer (track 6) to be given than we are offered
here, for example: the opening words bespeak a cry from the heart
and the closing words are a prayer for release from deceit. Only
the central section, et exaudivit me, tell of the Lord’s
consolation, but the whole piece as performed here is too untroubled,
with no contrast between the cry and its answer.

The following Justitiæ Domini (tr.7) tells of the
sweetness of God’s judgements - sweeter than honey, yea
than the honeycomb. The sweetness is all here, but not the delight
which those judgements are said to bring to the heart - lætificantes
corda. In fact, all six motets sound remarkably alike in
tone as performed here, with the possible exception of Exsurge
Domine (tr.8), where the choir does achieve a measure of
regret at the prospect of enemies prevailing.

Just to remind myself of how good Alessandro’s music can
sound, I listened to Nicholas McGegan’s reconstruction
of his music for Vespers on St Cecilia’s Day (AV0048, 2
CDs - see review and review).
Not all the singing on this Avie set is ideal, but the whole
experience is more gratifying than on the new Regent CD.

Rival recordings of Domenico’s Stabat mater come
from Roger Norrington on a Double Decca, coupled with other settings
of the same work (443 868-2) and the Immortal Bach Ensemble on
Naxos, with his Magnificat, Te Deum, etc. (8.570382,
a disappointing performance for Johan van Veen - see review).
There is also a recently reissued budget-price EMI compilation
of his music, also including the Stabat mater, Magnificat and Te
Deum, from Christ’s better-known rivals at King’s
(2357352, ‘a programme worth investigating’ - see
Robert Hugill’s review).
The best performance of all, perhaps, comes again from Concerto
Italiano and Rinaldo Alessandrini on Naïve mid-price OP30446,
with the Missa quatuor vocum, a performance which Johan
van Veen greatly preferred to the Naxos in his review of the
latter (see above).

Against the high standards on offer from these rivals, I’m
afraid that some of the same considerations apply as with Alessandro.
Satisfactory as it would be in a live performance - the singing
is firmer here and there is some really affective identification
with the sufferings of Mary at the foot of the cross - the new
version faces stiff competition, when one considers that the
Norrington, nominally a two-for-the-price-of-one set, actually
usually sells for as little as around £9.

After the rather harsh opening sections of Alessandro’s
Mass, the sound improves greatly and I found myself listening
to the closing sections of Domenico’s Stabat mater with
real enjoyment that the singing and recording had improved so
much that I wondered if I had been too judgemental at the start.
On reflection, I hadn’t, at least not by much - even in
the final Amen chorus (tr.21) there’s an element
of insecurity - but I shall certainly look forward to hearing
other recordings from this source.

The presentation of the new Regent CD is good, with brief but
informative notes, full texts and translations. I wish the booklet
and insert could have been consistent, however, in the name of
the mass - is it missa breve (front cover, p.2, p.4 track
details and rear insert) or messa breve (pp.3 and 4 notes,
p.5 footnote) or even messe breve (top p.2)?

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